Angela R. Riley is Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law and Director of the UCLA American Indian Studies Center. She is also the Director of UCLA's J.D./M.A. joint degree program in Law and American Indian Studies. Her research focuses on issues related to indigenous peoples’ rights, with a particular emphasis on cultural property and Native governance. Her work has been published in the Yale Law Journal, Columbia Law Review, California Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal and others. She received her undergraduate degree at the University of Oklahoma and her law degree from Harvard Law School.

After clerking for Chief Judge T. Kern of the Northern District of Oklahoma, she worked as a litigator at Quinn Emanuel in Los Angeles, specializing in intellectual property litigation. In 2003 she was selected to serve on her tribe’s Supreme Court, becoming the first woman and youngest Justice of the Supreme Court of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation of Oklahoma. In 2010, she was elected as Chief Justice. She now serves as Co-Chair for the United Nations - Indigenous Peoples’ Partnership Policy Board, which is a commitment to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and calls for its full realization through the mobilization of financial and technical assistance. She is also an Evidentiary Hearing Officer for the Morongo Band of Mission Indians.